Reactions to the disclosures about Jack Ryan (the Republican Senate candidate in Illinois, not the real Jack Ryan chronicled by Tom Clancy) confirm three not very surprising hypotheses about the current political universe.
1. The double standard for conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats is blatant. Ryan's ex-wife claimed that, on at most four occasions in an eight-year marriage, her husband asked her to engage in sex with him in places where strangers could watch. She refused, and nothing further occurred. If wanting to have overly public relations with one's wife is a disqualification for public office, what about Bill Clinton's adulteries? If President Clinton had done exactly what candidate Ryan is accused of doing, would the major media have endorsed his impeachment? If the two actual cases were treated differently, was that because exhibitionism is worse than infidelity, because a Senator holds a more responsible position than a President, because lying to fellow politicians is worse than lying under oath to a court, or perhaps because Republicans' sins are serious matters and Democrats' are not?
Also pertinent is the media's willingness to believe. Uncorroborated allegations in divorce proceedings are not the gold standard of evidence, but none of the media question them in the case of the Ryans. Starkly contrasting is the skepticism (initially not unreasonable) that greeted stories about Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky (not to mention Paul Jones, Gennifer Flowers, Juanita Broaddrick and lots of other women). If it weren't for the DNA evidence salvaged from the famous blue dress, the Lewinsky affair would probably still have the status of "unproven slander by the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy".
Then there is lying. Jack Ryan wasn't forthcoming in advance about what was in his court papers. Perhaps he was being dishonest. Perhaps he didn't think that Jeri Ryan's charges were credible enough to set off a firestorm. In either case, he is not getting the benefit of the "everybody lies about sex" excuse that was sufficient in the last President's case to mitigate indubitable falsehoods in both the public arena and court testimony.
2. Conservatives are completely spooked by allegations of sexual misconduct, apparently afraid that any defense of an accused Republican - even the defense of innocence - will be taken as proof that all complaints about Clinton were unjustified. Hence, they cooperate in perpetuating the double standard. A telling example is a post by Kate O'Beirne in the NRO Corner. She refers to a Democrat whose divorce papers revealed a scandal as "an alleged wife beater" and to Jack Ryan as "a lying exhibitionist" (no "alleged"). Yet the first man admitted that the allegations were true, while those against Ryan rest on the words of a single interested witness with motives to shade the truth.
3. Once again, the dominant Thompson-Edgar-Topinka wing of the Illinois Republican Party displays that political acumen that has led to the loss of the governorship, most other statewide offices and both houses of the legislature in the course of the past ten years. Without pausing to think about the quality of the evidence, they have rushed to condemn their party's candidate as a liar, thus pulverizing whatever chance he had of recovering from this setback. Their public clumsiness also pretty much makes it impossible to supersede Ryan gracefully. Either he will stumble on in a hopeless cause (which his own party helped render hopeless) or his withdrawal will leave behind bitterness that will doom any successor nominee.
I have no objection to holding Republicans to higher standards than Democrats. Fairness should, however, place limits on the asymmetry. At the very least, GOP candidates should not be burdened with a presumption of guilt.
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